1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of online advertising, and more specifically, to fraud avoidance and/or detection for online advertisement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional online advertising in the context of pay per click is known. A conventional set up includes a publisher that supplies web content on web pages and an advertiser that advertises on the web page. In this arrangement, an advertiser typically has a uniform resource locator (URL) link on the web page. An end user clicks on when that end user browses the publisher's web page if that end user is interested in the advertiser's link. For each click through, the advertiser pays the publisher some predetermined amount that may be purchased real time, on credit, or some other financial arrangement that pays on a per click or group of click basis.
A problem with such conventional online advertising is that it is susceptible to fraud. One example of fraud is referred to as competitive fraud. In competitive fraud a competitor (or other organization whose interests are not aligned with the advertiser) may harvest from a webpage click URL addresses of advertisers. Specifically, the competitor may employ individuals to click on the links of other advertisers on a web page so that those advertisers end up with a large financial bill to each advertiser with no associated sales for any of them, which results in financial loss.
Another problem with conventional online advertising is click fraud. In some advertising arrangements, a publisher may be paid on a per click basis for an advertisement so that each click on an advertiser's URL on a web page results in revenue for the publisher. With click fraud, to maximize revenue a publisher may employ individuals or technology such as bots to trigger click throughs on a web page. Again, this results in a large financial bill to the advertiser from the publisher and no associated sales for the advertiser, which results in financial loss.
Hence, there is a need for a system and a method for detecting and preventing fraud in online advertising environments to allow advertisers and publishers to track fraudulent conditions and take appropriate corrective action.